49.9

Humpback whales continue to be illegally slaughtered in the waters off Antarctica every year. The ones that escape swim thousands of miles north to the tropics, where females give birth to their young. I spent many weeks with these docile, curious giants but on this occasion after swimming directly at me they dove deep below and then suddenly turned and spiraled back towards the surface in an elegant dance. Whales historic populations could have been as high as 1.5 million. Today their population represents less than 10% of that number.